The withholding of food, in order to sharpen the lions' appetites (v.
32), shews a spirit similar to that which directed the sevenfold heating
of the furnace in chap. iii. The numbers in vv. 2, 10, etc., are quite
in keeping with Daniel's use of symbolic numeration for purposes of
religious teaching; and the zeal displayed against idolatry is
characteristic of the Jewish captivity, as depicted in the canonical
book which bears his name. These three points, therefore, so far as they
go, tell in favour of the religious unity of the whole.
SOCIAL
Daniel appears on the same terms of intimacy with royalty as in the
canonical book, and speaks his mind a little more freely and intimately
perhaps, as becomes his added years and experience. He still acts as a
divine messenger to a heathen king, and he successfully unmasks his
fallacy of judging by appearances in the matter of Bel's food. His
laughter in vv. 7,19, may have been amusement at the king's simplicity
or at the priests' cunning, the king's wrath in vv. 8, 21, being
compatible with either.
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